Heroes of Universes: Crash Bandicoot
by HeroxPartnerfan96
Summary: Crash and his friend, Alicia, narrowly escape Cortex's castle. Around the same time, Maverick and Reala end up in Crash's universe through Maverick's new machine, the Universe Warper. Includes all games, known and cancelled. Bandicoot, Laptop, Skill and Toughshipping, on hiatus
1. Prolouge

**Heroes of Universes: Crash Bandicoot**

**Summary: **Crash and his friend, Alicia, narrowly escape Cortex's castle after being rejected by the Cortex Vortex and end up on N. Sanity Island. Around the same time, Maverick and Reala end up in Crash's universe through Maverick's new machine, the Universe Warper. The four then decide to work together and many adventures take place as a result.

**Pairings: **Crash/Alicia (Bandicootshipping), Maverick/Coco (Laptopshipping), Reala/Nina (Skillshipping) and Crunch/Pasadena (Toughshipping)

**Chapter 1: Prologue**

It was a dark starry night and somewhere in New Zealand, which was southeast of Australia, a giant castle had been built with a purple airship with the letter N on the end. Inside, two figures were both being pursued through the dark hallways. They were none other than Crash, an orange anthropomorphic bandicoot wearing dark blue pants with sneakers, and his friend Alicia, who looked almost like him except for being female and wearing a brown top, purple pants and runners. The two both ran around a corner and stopped short, pressing themselves against the wall so they wouldn't be noticed.

"Do you see him anywhere?" Crash asked, looking over at Alicia. Alicia poked her head around the corner and a smile crossed her face when she saw that no one was there, and then she looked back at Crash.

"No, he's not there. We should be safe for the time being." Alicia responded. Crash sighed from relief hearing this and the two sat down on the floor to have a rest; they were exhausted from trying to avoid being caught. "Who'd have thought that things would end up like this?" Alicia asked.

"I know. To think we'd end up in a place like this and almost turned into generals of his army; it just seems like it all happened too fast for me." Crash agreed. The person they were referring to was Dr Neo Cortex; he had captured the animals of the island, including Crash and Alicia themselves, and was turning them into anthropomorphic animals so they could be soldiers of his army. The two were both lucky to escape, though, but they just had to work out how to get out of the castle.

Just then, the two could hear the sound of footsteps approaching and the two poked their heads out to see Cortex having just come around the corner to find them. "Here he comes again! Run for it!" Crash warned. With this, the two immediately stood up and started to run for it again. However, as they looked back to see how far Cortex was behind them, they didn't notice that they were running straight towards a window. Alicia then turned around to notice and her eyes immediately went huge.

"Crash, incoming!" Alicia called. Before the two had a time to react, they smashed through the window, completely shattering it, and noticed that they were standing in mid air directly above the ocean.

"Uh oh!" Crash said simply, and the two were sent plummeting down to the ocean. Cortex had just arrived and looked out the broken window to see the two falling into the ocean. The other one who noticed was Crash's girlfriend, Tawna; she was a female bandicoot who was taller than both Crash and Alicia, and she was wearing a pink t-shirt, blue shorts and red shoes with short blonde hair as well.

Meanwhile in the One Winged Angel's residence, Reala, a red and black Nightmaren wearing a Persona, a gold mask with a pink jewel in the centre and black feathers on the edge, as well as a vest with a flame pattern, arm guards and hip plates and red fingerless gloves, was standing at the door of Maverick's room. After he knocked on the door, Maverick could be heard from inside the room.

"Don't come in just yet. I'll let you know when I'm ready." Maverick said from inside. Reala sighed to himself at this and sat down at the bottom of the stairs. Zero had just come into the room and when he saw Reala sitting on the stairs, he headed over to see what was up.

"Hey, Reala. What's going on? Is the room sill not ready yet?" Zero asked. Reala nodded in agreement and then looked up at Zero. "It's been like that for quite a few weeks. I'd like to see what's going on, but I never get allowed in." Reala explained.

"I'm sure it's probably just something important. I really wouldn't worry about it too much and just wait until whatever needs to be worked on is done." Zero said. Reala nodded slowly in agreement; Zero probably had a good point about that. Just then, an announcement came in from the speakers that were placed around the house.

"Hey, everyone. This is Maverickhunterzero75, aka the One Winged Angel. Could Reala come up to see me in my room? I have something I'd like to show him." Maverick's voice said over the speakers. Reala and Zero looked at each other wondering what was going on, when they could suddenly hear another voice from one of the other rooms.

"Not again! I told that skeleton of a person not to adjust the volume, but of course he doesn't listen!" Someone yelled from the other room. Zero then started to smile, knowing what the cause of the problem was.

"Sounds like Grant messed with the volume of the speakers in there again. You'd better head upstairs and see what's going on, Reala." Zero said. Reala nodded and started to head upstairs while Zero went into the other room, saying "It's all right! I'll come fix it, Shadow!"

While this was happening, Reala had just arrived upstairs and slowly opened the door to Maverick's room. As he poked his head in, he saw Maverick sitting at his desk with his back turned. "Is that you, Reala?" Maverick asked, having heard the door open.

"Yes." Reala responded, nodding. "That's great. Would you mind closing the door behind you? I wouldn't want the others to come in." Maverick said. Reala then came inside closing the door behind him, and started to approach the desk Maverick was sitting at. When he came over, Reala got down on one knee and bowed his head.

"You asked for me, Master?" Reala asked. Maverick then spun his chair around to see Reala and then he started to smile. "Yeah, that's right. There's something I'd like you to see." Maverick responded, and jumped out of his chair heading over to another part of the room, with Reala standing up and following him.

"So, Reala, I guess you could tell I've been working a lot in here for the past few weeks?" Maverick asked. Reala shook his head and then looked back up at Maverick. "Almost everyone could tell. The room was always locked and no one else was let in." Reala replied.

"You'll get to be the first one to see what I've been working on, then." Maverick said, and the two stopped when they came to a giant machine; it looked like it was what Maverick had been working on. "Do you like it?" he asked. Reala stared at the machine in silence for a few seconds, and then he looked over at Maverick.

"What is it?" Reala asked. Maverick then smiled at this, and turned to Reala. "I thought you might say that. This is a new machine I've finished, and I call it the Universe Warper! It does sound a bit lame, but it really does is far from that. With it, we'll be able to travel into the universes of video games!" Maverick explained. Reala found himself at a loss of words, and then he had to wonder to himself if that was safe; he was just hoping that he and Maverick wouldn't mess anything up if the machine did work successfully.

"How do we get the machine to work?" Reala asked. "I'm not sure. I haven't been able to work that out yet." Maverick said, and started scratching his head as he was wondering how to get the machine running. While Maverick was distracted, Reala snuck over to Maverick's game library. Noticing the Crash Bandicoot game case, Reala picked it up and had a look at it; Crash Bandicoot was one of Maverick's favourite video game franchises and he had played almost every game in the series.

Figuring that would be a good first test for the machine, Reala snuck past Maverick heading inside the machine and took out the game disk. Noticing what looked like a DVD slot in the machine, Reala slipped the disk into the slot and after a few seconds, the machine started to activate. "I think I figured out how to get it working!" Reala said to Maverick, who was still wondering what to do.

Hearing that, Maverick immediately headed into the machine with Reala. However, Maverick noticed that Reala was holding the Crash game case and immediately snatched it away, opening it to find that the disk wasn't there.

"What the...? Reala! Did you use one of my Crash games?!" Maverick asked, immediately starting to become upset. Reala started to back away in worry; he never liked when Maverick was mad, especially at him.

However, before anything else could be said, the machine suddenly vanished with Maverick and Reala in it.


	2. Arc 1: Part 1

**Heroes of Universes: Crash Bandicoot**

**Chapter 2: Arc 1: Part 1**

It was morning as the two bandicoots recovered, and they found themselves on the shore of a beach leading to what looked like an island. Crash had a look around for a few seconds before he turned to see Alicia beside him. "Are you all right, Alicia?" he asked. Alicia looked at Crash and nodded in agreement, causing Crash to smile in relief.

"That's good." Crash responded. The two then stood up to have a proper look at where they had ended up after their drop to the ocean last night. "Where are we? It looks like some kind of island." Crash commented.

"Yeah, you're right." Alicia agreed, nodding while she said that. Nearby not too far from them, Maverick and Reala were both lying on the sand. Reala was the first of the two to recover and as he looked around to see where they were, he immediately noticed Maverick beside him and headed over, shaking him to get him up.

"Master, are you all right?" Reala asked. Maverick then slowly got up and started to shake his head off while Reala watched him. Maverick then looked up to see Reala staring down at him and then looked around at their surroundings.

"Where are we, Reala?" Maverick asked. "I'm not sure. It looks very familiar, though. I think we've seen a place like this before." Reala responded. The two started to look around for a few seconds, and then Maverick suddenly registered where they had ended up.

"It's little wonder why this looks familiar. This is N. Sanity Island! And that means we've ended up in Crash's universe." Maverick commented. The two nearly jumped as soon as they heard that; they had been transported to Crash's universe and they were now on N. Sanity Island. They could suddenly hear two voices from nearby and went closer to see who it was, poking their heads out from a bush.

"Looks we're not heading back to Cortex's castle the way we came." Crash commented, as he and Alicia turned to the ocean to see the castle out in the distance. "I'll say. We'll need to find another way to get there." Alicia agreed. From their hiding place, Maverick and Reala could see this.

"It's Crash! I can't believe this is actually real. I'm seeing Crash in actual person and not just from playing the games!" Maverick smiled in excitement. Reala shook his head as he watched Maverick on and noticed Alicia beside Crash; he really didn't remember seeing any other female bandicoot like her. Crash and Alicia turned to notice Maverick and Reala and as soon as the two saw that they were spotted, they poked their heads down in the bush so they wouldn't be seen.

"Hey, Alicia. Did you see those two hiding, or was I just seeing things?" Crash asked, scratching his head in confusion. "I don't think so. I saw them too." Alicia responded, slowly shaking her head. The two bandicoots slowly headed over to have a closer look and poked their heads down in the bush to find Maverick and Reala. As Maverick and Reala looked up, the two bandicoots smiled.

"Hi!" Alicia said. Maverick and Reala remained silent seeing who was staring at them, before they then stood up staring the two bandicoots in the eyes. Crash smiled as he stared at the two.

"Hey there. Who are you two?" Crash asked. Maverick and Reala remained silent uncertain about saying anything, and Crash's smile faded replaced with an expression of surprise noticing their silence. "Is something wrong?" he asked. Maverick nearly jumped, but then he smiled and immediately shook his head.

"No, nothing's wrong. I guess we were just surprised at seeing you." Maverick responded. Crash was wondering what Maverick meant for a few seconds before he smiled again.

"That'd make sense. Anyway, who are you two?" Crash asked, while Alicia came over to stand beside him.

"My name's Maverick, and this is Reala." Maverick said, looking over at Reala beside him. Alicia happily waved to the two, while Reala slowly bowed his head to the two bandicoots.

"It's great to meet you guys. My name's Crash and this is my friend, Alicia." Crash said, looking over at Alicia who brightly smiled at him. Crash then looked back at the two remembering something. "Would you guys happen to have any idea of where we are? Alicia and I just recovered and found ourselves on this island, and we're not sure of what it is." Crash explained.

Maverick and Reala remained silent at that question. The two knew perfectly well where they were: it was N. Sanity Island. But, they decided not to let Crash and Alicia know of how much they really know for the time being. "Unfortunately, no. We found ourselves on this island around the same time you did, so we don't know either." Reala responded.

"That's a letdown." Crash sighed, looking down. "Don't worry about it too much, Crash. We just need to figure out how to get to Cortex's castle from here." Alicia said. Maverick and Reala then looked at each other in worry: the mention of Cortex didn't sound good to them.

"D-did you say Cortex?" Maverick asked.

"That's right. Do you guys know him?" Crash asked. "Yeah, actually we do. We've heard about what he's planning to do, and I'm guessing you two got involved in his plans, right?" Maverick asked in response. Crash and Alicia nodded in agreement at this.

"Yeah, that's right. Cortex tried to make us the generals of his army, and he won't stop until he has us dead. Not to mention, he still has Tawna with him and I'm guessing he has something for her in his plans too. Alicia and I need to hurry and find a way to his castle before he succeeds!" Crash explained. Maverick and Reala looked at each other and nodded in agreement; since they were technically in the universe of the Crash games, they needed to be careful to follow the stories of the games and do everything how they were planned. Not to mention, when Cortex was involved, they needed to do what they could to stop him.

"Well then, count us in. We'll help you two stop Cortex." Maverick said. Crash and Alicia both smiled at this, and then nodded in agreement. "Thanks a lot, you two. Cortex will know better than to mess with all four of us." Alicia smiled.

"Right now, we just need to figure out where to start." Reala said, as he looked out at the ocean with the two bandicoots; going back the way they came certainly didn't sound like a good option, and Crash and Alicia didn't have any idea of where they were either.

"Hey, follow me! I think I know where to go!" Maverick called, as he started to go off ahead into the jungle. The other three stared in silence and then started to head off after Maverick. "This does seem like it's a good start. But are you sure you know where you're going, Maverick?" Crash asked. Maverick looked back at Crash with a smile and winked.

"You don't need to worry, Crash. I have a route to Cortex's castle figured out. We'll be there in no time!" Maverick responded. Crash and Alicia both smiled in excitement at this.

"That's great! We'll be able to get there without having to worry about getting lost." Alicia said. Crash had to agree, but then he looked up at the clear sky in worry; he knew Tawna was still in trouble and that meant they had to worry if they didn't want anything to happen to her.

"Don't worry, Tawna. We're on our way." Crash said quietly, and then he started to run after the others since they had already gone off ahead. Alicia turned to see Crash walking beside her and smiled.

"Make sure you're not too far behind, Crash. None of us would want to get lost." Alicia said. Crash nodded, indicating that he would keep that in mind. Maverick smiled when he saw that everyone was keeping up and pointed his finger up in the air to make himself look like an expert.

"All right, Jungle 101." Maverick said. Crash and Alicia both raised one of their eyebrows in confusion and looked over at Reala. "What's going on with Maverick?" Crash asked.

"He does this anytime we're on some sort of adventure because he thinks he knows what he's doing." Reala responded. Maverick then looked back at Reala with a frown "I heard that, Reala!" Maverick retorted. Reala nearly jumped at this, but Crash and Alicia looked at him with a smile.

"I'm sure he didn't mean any offense by it. Did you, Reala?" Crash asked, as he stared at Reala. Reala then shook his head, and Maverick smiled at this response.

"That's good. Let's move on." Maverick said, and started to go off ahead. As the group were going off ahead, Crash noticed that there were a few brown crates in front of them.

"I wonder what these crated are doing in the middle of a place like this." Crash said to himself. He jumped on one of the crates, breaking it open, and smiled when he saw red apple-like fruit lying on the sand. "Check it out! There's Wumpa Fruit in these!" Crash smiled. Alicia turned to have a look and Crash handed her a fruit. She then had a munch on it and smiled.

"You're right! These were my favourites while we were still out in the wild!" Alicia said. Maverick and Reala were both watching, and then the two bandicoots turned to see them. "Are you guys watching?" Alicia asked.

"Can we please get a move on? We're kind of in a hurry here." Maverick said. Crash and Alicia quickly understood what he meant and smiled innocently. "Sorry." The two said in unison. At this, the four continued on ahead while Maverick continued.

"As you can see, there are what appear to be ruins from an old temple scattered around the forest. I'm assuming that there was a temple built on this place a long time ago, but it has since been destroyed." Maverick explained. The other three could see that sure enough, there were parts of what could have an old temple around them; there were totem poles and other parts like pillars. As they were looking around, Alicia stopped short when she saw another crate beside her, but it looked a bit different.

"Guys, come have a look at this. It looks like it's another crate." Alicia said. Crash came over to have a look with her and bent down to see that the crate had the picture of a brown mask with yellow eyes and orange eyebrows, four feathers on the top of its head, one blue, one yellow, one dark red and one purple, and a small green beard on the bottom end of its head.

"Yeah, it is. But I don't think I've seen a picture like that on it. What do you think it is?" Crash asked, looking up at Alicia. "Why don't we open it and find out?" Alicia asked in response. With this, Crash jumped on the crate smashing it open to reveal the mask that was seen on the crate. As the two bandicoots stared on at the floating mask, Alicia immediately hid behind Crash causing him to stare at her before looking back up at the mask.

After a few seconds, Crash managed to get a question out. "Who are you?"

"I am Aku-Aku, the guardian of N. Sanity Island." The mask responded, which nearly caused Crash and Alicia to jump from surprise at the fact that this mask could talk. Crash then had a look around to register the fact that where they were could be what this mask was talking about, before looking back at him.

"N. Sanity Island? Is that where we are now?" Crash asked. "Yes." Aku-Aku responded. Maverick and Reala both looked at each other, realising that they were both right; this was exactly where they thought they were, and that meant they were truly inside Crash's universe. Crash and Alicia were both surprised as well, but mainly by the fact that they now knew where they had found themselves.

"May I ask who the two of you are?" Aku-Aku asked. Crash then smiled and took a further step forward while Alicia watched and then followed him. "Yeah, I think we should introduce ourselves. My name's Crash and this is my friend, Alicia." Crash said, and then turned his head to see Alicia beside him. Alicia then gave a small smile and simply waved to Aku-Aku. "She's still a bit surprised." Crash explained.

Maverick and Reala then both came over to the two bandicoots to see what was going on, and Aku-Aku could see them as well. "Are these two your friends?" he asked.

"Yes. I'd like you to meet Maverick and Reala. They arrived here at the same time we did." Crash said. Maverick then scattered straight over to Aku-Aku and held his fingers in front of his face like a camera-like pose. "And wouldn't you know it! Right as this group start their first adventure, they come across none other than Aku-Aku." Maverick said. Reala then held his head in his hand and started shaking it, sighing in frustration at Maverick.

"Um, maybe this isn't the best time." Alicia said. Maverick brought his fingers down to see Aku-Aku looking at him confused, and then gave a nervous smile. "Sorry." Maverick said, and immediately headed back over to the group.

"Anyway, we're on our way to somewhere we need to be, and we have to get there as soon as possible." Crash explained. "I'll explain what's happening on the way." Alicia added.

"If that's true, I would like to offer my assistance. When you break three crates with a symbol of me on them, I will protect you from harm for a certain amount of time." Aku-Aku responded. Crash and Alicia both smiled at this; they were both happy to hear that they had an extra person, or mask rather, to help them on their way to stop Cortex.

"Thanks, Aku-Aku. And we'll keep your tip in mind." Crash said. With this, the group started to continue their way through the jungle coming to a row of stairs with crates stacked on them. As the group jumped up the stairs, Crash was making sure to break the crates and gather the Wumpa fruit inside them. Maverick was still keeping his fingers in front of him in a camera pose to make himself look like he was documenting their adventure.

"As the team continue their trek in the jungle, they discover a staircase that seem like they would be part of an old temple that had been built on this island a long time ago." Maverick announced, pretending to be a commentator. The others stared at Maverick, wondering what he was doing while Crash found another Aku-Aku crate and grabbed the mask that was inside, causing Aku-Aku's feathers to turn yellow and orange.

"I'm guessing Maverick has quite the taste for adventure, huh?" Crash asked, as he looked over at Reala. "I think that would be a bit of an understatement." Reala responded, while Maverick was paying no attention to the others since he was too busy pretending to record their journey.

Soon, the group came across a route that split into two paths, one to the left and the other to the right. "And the team have come across a split path, leaving them to decide what course of action they should take." Maverick continued, while Reala was just staring at him wondering when he would stop doing that. Crash had a look at their two routes for a few moments before he looked at the others.

"Let's split into groups of two and go down different routes. Alicia and I will go to the right, and Maverick, you and Reala can head to the left." Crash said. With this, he and Alicia started to head on the route on the right while Maverick and Reala went to the left.

As Maverick and Reala headed down their route, Reala had to wonder about Crash's choice to split into two groups. "How come Crash thought this was necessary? These routes aren't even that long, and it doesn't take long to make it past them." Reala commented. Maverick wasn't paying attention as he was too busy pretending to be an explorer.

"And now our team leader, Crash had decided for us to split up and explore the different paths we could take. We don't know how long it will be until we unite with our other team members, but we must do our best for the team no matter what the risks are." Maverick commented, as he had his fingers in front of his face as a camera pose. Reala sighed and started slowly shaking his head; he started to ask himself how long this was going to take.

Meanwhile, Crash and Alicia were making their way down their route which was to the right. "Say, Crash, do you think it was necessary for us to split into groups of two? We would have been able to make it through without any problems." Alicia said.

"That's true, but there might be things we would miss if we took just one route, So if we took both routes, we'd be able to see those things." Crash explained. The two bandicoots then stopped short when they came to a long gap in the ground in front of them, and there were white lines that seemed to illustrate a route across the gap.

"That looks like it might be a bridge. We just need to figure how to get across." Alicia commented. Crash started to look around wondering how to do that, when he saw a silver crate with an exclamation mark on it beside them. After Crash spun into it, he and Alicia watched as the white lines were replaced with a bridge made out of crates.

"There's our route." Crash said. "Now we just need to work out how both of us will make it across." Alicia added. Crash had some thought to himself for a few seconds, before he had an idea and then leaned down showing his back to Alicia, who then stared at him wondering what he was doing.

"Hop on, Alicia." Crash said. Alicia remained silent as she stared at Crash before asking "Are you sure?"

"Don't worry. If you're on my back, we'll both make it across without any problems." Crash said. Alicia had some thought about it, before she shrugged and climbed up onto Crash's back, holding onto his shoulders so she wouldn't fall off. With this, Crash started to jump across the gap breaking each crate as they made their way before making it across safely. Once they were across, Alicia jumped off Crash's back.

"Wow. That actually worked!" Alicia smiled. Crash couldn't help smiling as well, glad that his idea worked. With this, the two continued their way to find that Maverick and Reala were there waiting for them. "Hey there, guys. Did you have any problems with your route?" Alicia asked. Reala shook his head, while Maverick was still pretending to record everything.

"We made it through safely." Reala said. Maverick turned his head to see Crash and Alicia, and he brightly smiled. "There you are, you two. I thought we would never see each other again." Maverick said. Crash and Alicia stared at him with puzzled looks on their faces, while Reala sighed from annoyance at this.

"Master, we were only separated for a few minutes." Reala explained. "That felt like forever to me." Maverick responded. Reala then frowned at Maverick, while Crash and Alicia couldn't help laughing. They then turned to see what looked like a stone step with orange lights spinning around it.

"Come on, let's get a move on!" Crash said. The group stepped onto the step and found themselves transported to a different part of the island. While that happened, Crash noticed that a white gem appeared in front of them and then drifted off.

Soon, the group found themselves on a route leading ahead with two pillars on either side of the route. "Did you guys see a gem go past while we were arriving here?" Crash asked, as he turned to the others.

"Yeah, I saw that too. What was that about?" Alicia asked. Crash had some thought about it before he had an idea. "I think if we break all the crates on each part of the island we're at, we get one of those gems." Crash suggested.

"Yeah, I think you might be right. We should keep an eye out for those crates if that's true." Alicia responded. As they started to make their way through the next part of the island, they immediately stopped short when they saw a red crate with yellow lines streaking across the top and bottom and a TNT symbol in the middle.

"Are those TNT crates?" Crash asked. "It sure looks like it. We better make sure not to spin into it, otherwise it will detonate instantly. It would probably be better to jump on it and then run while it explodes on its own." Maverick responded.

"Maverick, that doesn't sound like a bad idea. You really sound like you know what to do." Crash said. Maverick then started to smile shyly, not willing to admit the truth. "Well, I do take notes of these things in advance..." he said. Crash then jumped on the TNT crate, causing it to start counting down from three to one.

"Run for it!" Crash warned. The others then started to run off ahead as the TNT crate exploded behind them, and they then continued the very straight-forward trek across the new part of the island, passing by temple ruins on the way. "Can you believe how simple this is? We'll be at the castle in no time, like Maverick said." Crash smiled. He then jumped up onto a small circular platform for a break, but didn't notice that a round wheel-like boulder was coming towards him. Alicia noticed however, and immediately ran over to pull Crash out of the way as the boulder rolled past.

"Alicia, what did you do that for?" Crash asked, turned to stare at her with annoyance. "You almost got turned into a bandicoot pancake, that's what!" Alicia responded, and she pointed to the boulder that continued to roll back and forth for Crash to see. When Crash turned to notice the boulder, he then understood; he actually nearly got rolled over, but Alicia stopped that by pulling him out of the way.

"I can't believe how close that was." Crash commented in surprise, and he then looked up at Alicia with a grateful smile. "Thanks." Crash sighed, relieved that Alicia did that. Alicia then gave a bright smile, like she was saying 'You're welcome'.

With this, the group then continued their way while coming across more boulders like this. "I guess this part of the island has those everywhere. As the group continues their trek through N. Sanity Island, they come across a new obstacle: rolling boulders that threaten to roll them into pancakes, deadly but effective." Maverick said, as he resumed his finger camera pose. The team then came across a platform that was twice as wide as the ones they saw earlier, with two boulders rolling along each platform. Maverick then shoved in front of the group to have a look with his fake camera pose.

"And here the fearless team have come across a lethal trap: to boulders that roll simultaneously and threaten to turn them into perfectly flat meals for the native animals." Maverick commented. Crash shook his head and then easily jumped across once the boulders were out of the way.

"Lethal trap avoided." Crash said, and then started to run off ahead. The others then followed after him, while Maverick just watched on completely wordless. After a few seconds, he then sighed and started to head off after the others. As they went off ahead, they came across a barrier of crates inside a small tunnel.

"Allow me to handle this, everyone." Crash said. He then started to spin into all the crates, breaking them to clear the way for the group. As the others watched, Maverick then held his fingers up in his camera pose.

"The team are left awestruck as they watch their leader clear the barrier of crates that prevent them from continuing their trek, and he demonstrates why he is the one in charge of everything by showing his strength and resolve to manage difficult scenarios." Maverick commented.

"Do you have to make comments about everything you see?" Reala asked. "I'm trying to make a good document about everything we do, and that includes making pitch-ins about impressive things that happen. Is that too hard to manage, Reala?" Maverick asked in response, glaring over at Reala. Reala nearly jumped seeing Maverick staring him down, and then he looked down and shook his head slowly.

"Glad to hear it." Maverick said, nodding in affirmation. Meanwhile, Crash had just finished clearing the crate barrier and looked at the others with a bright smile.

"All right, we're good to go!" Crash said. The others were happy to hear that, before Maverick suddenly remembered something and looked over at Alicia. "How come you don't help Crash if there were several crates stacked up in one place?" Maverick asked.

"I'm not able to spin like Crash is. So I can't really be relied on to do something like he can." Alicia responded. "Well, I think you can be just as good as Crash, if not better. After all, I'm sure he's happy that you're here to help him, and us too." Maverick explained. Alicia smiled and nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, you're right." Alicia agreed. The group then continued their way down the path, avoiding rolling boulders as they went on, but then they noticed that there were two TNT crates stacked on each other, and they were already counting down even though they hadn't been touched. The group then watched as the TNT crates exploded, leaving the steel white box that was on top of them dropping down on the ground.

"Did you see that? Those TNT boxes went off on their own, and no-one had touched them prior." Crash commented. "I think someone set them off earlier, just so we wouldn't be able to get much further." Reala suggested. Crash nodded to himself; that could be true. Soon the group came to the platform with the oranges light spinning around it, and they jumped on and were transported further ahead.

Soon, they arrived at what looked like a giant wall in front of them with totem-like symbols on it and white crates with an arrow pointing upwards beside them. "Check that out! It makes me wonder how high up this thing goes." Crash commented. The group then jumped on the boxes finding themselves on a platform leading forward further up onto the wall.

"It's little wonder why they call this place the Great Gate; it's so tall that you can barely see the top of it." Maverick said, as he held his fingers up in front of his face like a camera to pretend to take a picture of the wall. Crash and Alicia both stared at Maverick, and they had to wonder whether he was like this all the time. "Don't mind me, guys. I just become fascinated with things I see up close that I haven't before." Maverick said, noticing that the others were watching him.

With this, the group started to make their way across the platform of the gate, making their way onto a higher platform of the gate so they could continue on. "Whoa, can you believe how high up we are? I think we could see that village over there from up here." Crash commented, as he pointed down to a village made out of huts down below on the other side of the gate. As they continued on ahead, the group noticed that there were black and red poles with spikes all over them striking up or down depending on where they were placed.

"Better be careful. Those things could put holes all over us if we're not careful, and you don't want to know what will come out of those holes in the skin." Crash said. "I don't think I want to know, either." Alicia agreed, since she knew what Crash was talking about. Making sure to move when the poles weren't moving, the group continued their way across the gate while making sure they didn't slide off since they were walking on moss covered platforms and avoiding platforms that had a plate that shot flames up in an attempt to burn them up.

After avoiding those dangers, the group noticed the platform with the orange lights and got on, being transported away from the gate. They soon found themselves on the other side of the gate, and into an area that seemed to lead to the village they saw earlier. "Wow, our route looks good so far. We're making more progress that I thought." Crash commented, as the others started to go further to have a look around the new area.

"Yeah, but Cortex's castle is on a completely different island from this one. So it might take a while to get there." Maverick said. Crash had to agree with that, but he knew that as long as they were working together, they were going to make it there sooner rather than later, preferably sooner for Crash. As they started to make their way further, the group could suddenly feel the ground shaking underneath their feet.

"Do you guys hear something?" Maverick asked. Reala turned around to see that there was a boulder rolling towards them, and it was going to squash them flat if they didn't start running in the next few seconds. "We have trouble behind us." Reala said. The others turned around to see what Reala was talking about and noticed the boulder rolling towards them.

"Oh, no. Run for it, guys!" Crash yelled and started to dash off ahead. Without any hesitance, the others immediately followed Crash as they all had the same thought he did: they didn't want to get run over by that boulder. Jumping over gaps in the ground so they wouldn't fall in, the group then came to a small tunnel and hid while the boulder got stuck. Seeing that they were safe for the time being, the group sighed in relief.

"Man, was that close. I could not imagine getting flattened by that." Crash commented. "Yeah. If anything, I would prefer anything else than getting rolled over a boulder. In my opinion, I would prefer being downed by running into a wall I don't see coming. Rather a smash than a squash, if you ask me." Alicia agreed. As they and the others started to run off ahead to keep going, they could hear another boulder behind them.

"Not again." Maverick sighed. With that, they started to rush off ahead so they would avoid being rolled over flat. As they were running, the group jumped over gaps in the ground in front of them, passing through a log-like tunnel and jumping over small fences blocking their way. Soon, they came into another tunnel where the boulder got stuck in the entrance.

"How close can you get? I just have to wonder what is up with these traps today. Is someone purposely trying to hinder our progress or something?" Crash asked. After a few seconds for a break, the group started to go off ahead...only to be pursued by yet another boulder; that had to three chases for them in one area. This time, they were jumping on platforms to cross larger gaps in the ground and avoiding running into fences blocking their way. Soon, they arrived at the area when the transporting platform and the boulder dropped down into the large hole in the ground behind them.

"Finally, we can get out of here! I never like getting chased by anything." Maverick sighed. The group jumped onto the platform and found themselves transported onto a river stream. They were standing on a log while the water slowly streamed down.

"This actually feels really relaxing. It feels nice to have a break after all the madness we've experienced today." Crash smiled. The group then started to go off ahead jumping on various platforms that were floating on the water, and that included lily pads and leaves. As they jumped up onto another log, Crash grabbed the leaf they had just been on and held it over Alicia's head, causing her to stare up at it in confusion.

"Crash, what are you doing?" Alicia asked, crossing her arms as she stared at him. "Just keeping you protected in case there's a storm. You never know what might happen, so I like to take these precautions." Crash responded. Alicia then turned to face Crash and, with a smile, grabbed the leaf from his grasp.

"Thanks, but I prefer having my own protection." Alicia responded, and she held the leaf over her head. Crash then crossed his arms and happily shook his head; Alicia was never easy for him to figure out. They then headed up a log which led further up the stream over a waterfall.

"I love waterfalls. And I'm not talking about those long one that take forever to fall down from, I mean the ones that are small and just send you on a short trip down to the river. It just feels really relaxing, and I feel like drifting on the water asleep." Crash smiled. "With you, Crash, you're always asleep regardless of what's happening around you." Alicia joked with a smug smile on her face. Crash then frowned while Alicia was happily laughing at her own comment.

"I'll get you for that, you know!" Crash retorted. "I highly doubt it, Crash." Alicia said, happily pretending not to pay attention to him. Soon, they came across a piranha plant that was being used as a platform.

"Wait here, guys, and I'll let you know when it's safe to come across." Crash said. He then jumped on the plant and jumped off just before it slammed its jaws together and then readjusted itself as a platform. "Okay, guys! You can come across now!" Crash called, waving to the group. After hearing that it was safe, the group then jumped across to follow Crash. It didn't take them long to make it across the rest of the river, while avoiding other plants that snapped their jaws shut straight away and heading up another waterfall. They soon came across the transporting platform and jumped on, warping them away.

Soon, the group found themselves in a giant hut. There were tiki symbols on the floor and around the walls along with spears and a giant sun symbol on the floor in the middle of the room. They then turned around to see a giant man sleeping on his chair, and he was wearing a green skirt made out of leaves along with what looked like a tiki mask on his face.

"Let's sneak out of here as quietly as possible. We don't want to wake him up." Crash whispered, as the group slowly backed away. Unfortunately it proved a bit too late for Crash to say that, because the man woke up and jumped off his chair, walking to the middle of the hut. He then slammed the small cane he was holding onto the floor and started to spin it around, prompting the group to jump out of the way.

"What's wrong with him?" Crash asked. "I think he's upset that we trespassed into the village without permission." Aku-Aku responded. Suddenly understanding what the problem was, Crash slowly stepped forward without the man, Papu Papu, noticing.

"We didn't mean to trespass. We're just trying to find our way to a place we're looking for, and we thought that this would be the fastest route. We don't mean any harm to your village, and we'll respectfully leave if that's what you want." Crash explained. Unfortunately, Papu Papu wasn't listening and he slammed his cane onto the ground causing Crash to immediately jump out of the way.

"I guess he's too mad to listen to reason. I'll need to take him down to get him to see some sense." Crash commented. Noticing that Papu Papu was still recovering from slamming his cane down, Crash jumped on top of his head and landed safely on the floor. Papu Papu then shook off the jump and started spinning his cane on the floor again before slamming it down. That gave Crash yet another chance to jump onto his head.

"I think one more hit should do it." Crash commented. His chance came sooner than he expected, because Papu Papu slammed his cane onto the floor straight away instead of spinning it which gave Crash another chance to jump onto his head. Once Crash did this, Papu Papu dropped down onto the floor.

The group then looked down at Papu Papu waiting for him to recover. "I don't think I jumped on him that hard. He should be all right." Crash said, as the others were looking on at him. Sure enough, Papu Papu slowly stood up so the others quickly backed away to give him room. Looking around at the group, Papu Papu then raised his cane up again to bring them down.

"Papu Papu destroy trespassers." Papu Papu said. "Wait! We're telling the truth! We honestly didn't mean to trespass!" Alicia cried. Crash then stepped in front of Alicia staring Papu Papu straight in the eyes, and the others stared in surprise as they watched Crash on.

"Crash, are you certain of this?" Aku-Aku asked. Crash nodded in agreement and simply said "I know what I'm doing, Aku-Aku. Don't worry." With this, he looked up at Papu Papu who was even wondering what Crash was doing.

"I can understand why you're acting like this. You only want to protect this village, and the people who have made this place their home. That's something I completely understand, but we don't want to bring any harm to your home. We're only lost, and we're trying to make our way to a place we're looking for. We only came through here because we thought that this would be a quick route, but we didn't realise that this village was inhabited. I sincerely apologize for our intrusion, and we'll respectfully leave if you say so. I can assure you, we don't want to bring any harm to this village or its inhabitants, and I only ask for you to realise that we are telling the truth." Crash explained. The others were left wordless having listened to Crash the entire time, and Papu Papu remained silent having heard all the way through.

"I never realised that Crash understood so much despite his years." Aku-Aku commented. "Crash knows a lot more than meets the eye." Alicia agreed. Papu Papu stared at Crash in silence for a few moments, before he simply nodded.

"Papu Papu understand. Furry man and friends may pass." Papu Papu said. Crash and the others brightly smiled at this, knowing that they could continue. "That's great! He understands that we aren't lying, and we can keep going!" Maverick smiled. Crash gave a sincere smile at this and slowly bowed his head.

"Thank you. I don't think we could ask for anything else than this." Crash said, and he then looked back up at Papu Papu retaining his grateful smile. The group then looked at each other, nodded and started to make their way out of the hut. As the others went off ahead, Crash looked back at Papu Papu for a few seconds and then followed the others.

Soon, the group found themselves outside and they continued to make their way down the route. While they were walking, Crash turned his head to see Aku-Aku floating beside him. "Yeah? What is it?" Crash asked.

"Crash, I am still astonished by what you told Papu Papu. It seems that your wisdom exceeds your years, possibly more than I realised." Aku-Aku explained. Crash then smiled and started to nervously scratch the back of his head.

"Well, to be honest, I'm not sure how I was able to say all of that. I just wanted him to understand that we weren't lying. But if you really think so, thanks." Crash responded. The two then started to smile at each other, before they noticed that the others had gone off way ahead of them. "I think maybe we should catch up with the others, and talk about this later." Crash said. With that, he and Aku-Aku started to rush off after the others, but one thing was certainly clear to them: they were really starting to get along well.

"Can you believe how much that worked? It was almost like he was a different person after hearing that!" Maverick smiled; he was still talking about what Crash had said to Papu Papu. "I know. It's amazing how much simple words can across." Reala agreed. Crash brightly smiled as he listened to their conversation; he still found it hard to believe that all of what they heard actually came from him of all people.

"I guess we've got the rolling boulders to deal with again." Alicia said, as she pointed ahead to see that sure enough, there were several platforms with round boulders rolling back and forth on them. Crash then ran over to catch up and when Alicia turned to see him beside her, she brightly smiled.

"Crash, I can't believe that you actually said all of it, let alone how much of it was actually coming from you! I don't think I ever heard you say something like that before." Alicia smiled. Crash couldn't help but smile either; she was talking about everything he said to Papu Papu to convince they were telling the truth and weren't trespassers.

After making it through the area safely, the group found themselves yet again in the village and there was a boar right in front of them. Crash turned to the others and started raising his eyebrows with a sneaky smile. "I never like when he does that." Alicia said, since she knew what was coming.

With that, Crash grabbed Alicia's hand and jumped onto the boar's back with both of them riding it through the village. Maverick and Reala watched on in surprise, and then realised that they were being left behind. "We got to catch up with them!" Maverick said.

Without any hesitance, Reala jumped into the air since he was able to fly and grabbed Maverick, throwing him into the air so he could hold on to Reala's back and then started to zoom off after Crash and Alicia. The two bandicoots were both riding the boar as they made their way through the village, avoiding totem poles with spikes on them, and natives holding shields that were in the way. "Crash, can't you slow this thing down?" Alicia asked, as she held on tight to avoid flying off.

"I would if I could figure out how!" Crash responded. As they were also jumping on tribal drums to cross gaps in the ground, Maverick and Reala started to catch up with them. "Guys, slow down! We can barely keep up!" Maverick called, as he was holding onto Reala.

"How is Reala able to fly?" Alicia asked, as she and Crash looked up at Crash. "That's a special gift of his. I don't ask about it." Maverick responded. As they were heading the village, the boar Crash and Alicia were riding jumped over a rotating stick that had a boar stuck on it.

"That's disgusting! That's the natives have for their meals?" Alicia asked, trying to avoid being sick. "Yeah, I kind of have to agree. That is a bit unsettling that they would eat animals that live in their area." Crash commented. Soon, the group arrived at the transportation area and Crash and Alicia jumped off the boar as they were transported away.

Soon, they found themselves at the gate that would lead off N. Sanity Island and onto the next island. "Man, that was insane! Who would have thought that boars could run that fast?" Crash asked, as he and Alicia were struggling to catch their breaths even though they didn't do any running. While that was happening, Reala landed on the ground so Maverick could get off his back.

"That's much better." Maverick said as he dusted himself off. He then turned to Reala and smiled. "Thanks, Reala. I'll let you know if I need any more assistance." Reala nodded in agreement, and then he and Maverick looked back at Crash and Alicia.

"We're almost out of here. We just need to get through this gate ad we'll be on our way to the next island." Maverick said. The group then jumped on the boxes with up arrows on them to get further up onto a platform on the gate, and then they started to head off across the gate.

"You think maybe on the next island, we'll be one step closer to finding Cortex?" Alicia asked. "I hope so. I'd like to get there sooner rather than later." Crash responded. The group soon found themselves further up onto the grate, with Crash spinning certain platforms to get them properly adjusted.

"I think we're making good progress. It looks like it's still early into the day even though we've been on this island for a while now." Maverick commented. "Yeah. Once you mention it, you're right. Time hasn't been going past as fast as I thought it would." Crash agreed.

The group continued their way across the gate, walking across moss covered platforms, avoiding platforms that shot flames up and avoiding the spike covered totem poles. They soon found themselves on top of the gate, where they could see the houses that were build high into the air, and they could see two other islands in the distance. As Alicia squinted her eyes to have a closer look, she suddenly smiled.

"Guys, look! I can see Cortex's castle!" Alicia called. The others went to have a look and they noticed that she was right: there was a silhouette of an airship beside a castle out in the distance. "I can see it too! That must mean we're getting closer." Crash said. They could also see another island beside the castle.

"That looks like it's our next stop and once we make it through there, we'll be on our way to the castle." Maverick said. Once they made it all the way to the top of the gate using the boxes with the up arrows, they came across the area that would transport to the next island. Once they got on, they were transported to their next stop: the next island, and one step further to the castle.


End file.
